History and Theory of Sino-Western Cultural Exchange

Author: He Zhaowu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-10-01
Features: In the early 1940s, while studying at Southwest Associated University, I took Professor Xiang Da's course on "History of Sino-Western Relations." This was when I first began to explore this field. At that time, Professor Xiang was already a renowned authority on the history of Sino-Western relations both in China and abroad. The content of his lectures was extremely detailed, and he often shared his insightful theoretical perspectives (for example, he believed that the mentality of the Chinese nation during the Han and Tang dynasties was sound, while it began to show pathological distortions after the Song Dynasty), which left a deep impression on me. The exam required writing a book report. My report was carefully reviewed by Professor Xiang, who even corrected my typos, and I received an 80. Due to the chaotic circumstances of the following years, I put this topic aside for a long time. In the late 1950s, while working at the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mr. Hou Wailu was writing the fourth volume of "A General History of Chinese Thought" and asked me to prepare some materials on the introduction of Western learning into China during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Much of the material I encountered at that time were handwritten manuscripts collected by Professor Xiang during his visits to Britain and France in the 1930s, which can be considered precious resources. These materials were kept in our research room for a long time. During the Cultural Revolution, with frequent changes in leadership and a large number of people involved, the materials underwent several moves, and they have now gone missing. It is truly a great pity. Initially, when I started working on this, I planned to categorize the collected materials and compile a comprehensive reference document for Mr. Hou's reference.